The past and the future

The child does it relentlessly.
A switch is pushed, poked and prodded and a light comes on.
A tap is pulled, pushed and turned and water flows.

These are experiences. But they are not learnings.
Our experiences are about the past. They are what we did.
What we learn is about the future. It is about what will happen.

When the child plays with the light switch, he is learning about how he will be able to turn the light on for the rest of his life.
When the child plays with the tap, she is learning about how to get water in the future.

There is always a step that we have to take that leads us from the experience that we have had in the past to the action that we will take in the future. Sometimes it is such a small step that we hardly notice it. But it can be a large leap with very uncertain consequences.

An experience is about the past.

An experience is an action.
I do something and I notice that the action has a consequence.

An experience makes a link between an action and aconsequence.
‘I did this, and that happened.’

Learning is about the future.

Learning is in the head
It is a prediction about what will happen when I do something.
‘When I do this, this will happen.’